Today we completed day #3 on the Hot Rod Power Tour and are spending the evening in South Bend, IN. We started the day (again) in the rain, but this time got smart and applied some Rain-X in the parking lot before we left – that made navigating in the rain a ton easier. Rain-X is great stuff – it’s like wax for windows and causes the water to bead up on the glass. When driving down the road at 55 mph the water just flies away – you never even need to turn on the wipers!
We met up with the Power Tour again this morning for the ‘official’ launch from Racine, but noticed that about half of the group had skipped the drivers meeting to get moving on down the road. We had a nice time meeting people in the lot, but then spent the next hour or so in bumper-to-bumper traffic getting out of Racine (heading toward Chicago). Unlike yesterday, we were in the back of the ‘launch’ parking lot – and ended up paying the price for it. Hopped up cars hate bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the Chevelle is no exception. Even with it’s massive aluminum radiator and 16-inch spal fan it still gets a little warm (about 220 degrees F). Anyway, we were somewhat bundled up when leaving Racine (because it was so cold), and by the time we reached Chicago is was a hot and steamy day. We made it to our destination of South Bend, IN around 3PM Eastern time – which only left us about 3 hours to meet and talk to people before the show was over for the day. About 2 of those 3 hours were in a good midwestern thunderstorm, and the remaining hour was in the sun. Despite the weather, we met up with several great people and were able to shoot several video interviews – those will be posted up once we return home and have a chance to do a little bit of editing.
I’ll end today’s post with an observation. The people we’ve met so far on the tour have been from all walks of life and have a fairly diverse ethnic and financial background….but every one of them seem to have a heart of gold. We saw several hot rods and muslce cars broken down on the side of the road during the drive, and for each injured car we saw there were another 10 that had pulled over to offer assistance. We interviewd a couple of guys who had just pulled the 4-speed out of a complete stangers 70 1/2 Camaro for him while he ran to the parts store to pick up a new clutch – and they did it in a thunderstorm. Good folks!
Bob, Thanks for posting my 67 Butternut Yellow plain-jane Chevelle, the one with the 427. You may post my name and city if you like. Ken Dunton, Caro Michigan.
Thanks again, Ken
P.S. it is only plain-jane on the outside.
Watch Hot Rod Mag. They did a feature shoot
with this and another yellow 67 with 427/800 plus h.p.
Thanks for the pic and video about the 70 1/2 camaro clutch job in South Bend. I am the owner of the 70 judge that jumped in to make sure that Pete and Patty, the Camaro owners, were able to continue on with the power tour. I am happy to say that they made the trip to Detroit then had to head back home to Duluth Minnesota, with no more problems. It made our day to help them out!!!!!!
Bob, Thanks for posting my 67 Butternut Yellow plain-jane Chevelle, the one with the 427. You may post my name and city if you like. Ken Dunton, Caro Michigan.
Thanks again, Ken
P.S. it is only plain-jane on the outside.
Watch Hot Rod Mag. They did a feature shoot
with this and another yellow 67 with 427/800 plus h.p.
Thanks for the kind words about the Super Bee! We’ll be looking forward to seeing you in the upcoming Power Tours.
Thanks, Tom
Thanks for the pic and video about the 70 1/2 camaro clutch job in South Bend. I am the owner of the 70 judge that jumped in to make sure that Pete and Patty, the Camaro owners, were able to continue on with the power tour. I am happy to say that they made the trip to Detroit then had to head back home to Duluth Minnesota, with no more problems. It made our day to help them out!!!!!!